The problem is, however, that for stations in the "home" QSO parties to work
the high bands... and I agree that's important... there also have to be
stations for THEM to work. Otherwise it is a lot of wasted time calling CQ
with no responses.
I've run the Pa QSO party more times than I care to think about, going back to
my days as a college freshman -- as a member of a club operation (including a
multi-county/multi-station bonus effort), home op, portable, and mobile. I can
tell you from experience that working or trying to work stations on 20 - 10 can
sometimes be a lot of effort for minimal gain. Especially on 20, when the band
is crowded, finding a "hole" can be it's own challenge, and the anti-contest
yahoos jump in to give you a hard time, just because. (And heaven forbid you
accidentally stumble on or near a cherished "net" frequency, even if it isn't
currently in use)
So of course the mobiles are going to concentrate on the low bands, where
there's lots of activity. Especially on those that are only capable of running
a single hamstick or equivalent at a time.
This isn't really, or at least always, a question about "rules" for
mobiles/rovers/portable stations. It's an acknowledgement of the classic
bootstrap, or if you will, chicken-or-the-egg, conundrum. How do you encourage
more activity from both ends of the effort on the high bands?
Boycotting a given contest because of a perception that
mobiles/rovers/portables are somehow granted a "point" advantage to NOT work
more multipliers seems counter-intuitive to that encouragement.
A problem or potential problem has been brought up, thus this email chain. The
simple question remains: What do we do about it?
73, ron w3wn
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Brown <k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com>
To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Sent: Mon, Sep 19, 2022 8:42 am
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] QSO Party Rules
On 9/18/2022 4:54 AM, Pete Smith N4ZR wrote:
> Nonetheless, I have to wonder why anyone would boycott a particular QSO
> party because of its rules.
It matters whether the "home" QSO parties are there to work on the bands
where distant participants can work them. It's no fun to work a QSO
party when you can't hear the guys you're trying to work, which causes
you not bother with those parties. Many of us LOVE state QSO parties
WHEN we can work them, and the serious in-state participants need us as
mults, just as they need US as mults.
Contests are about competition, and if I can't work mults, I'm not
competitive, and it's no fun. Many of us ENJOY tracking mobiles through
dozens of counties. That's an important part of the better QSO parties.
The guys who coordinate and participate in CQP work very hard to make
sure that all CA counties are workable from all of NA. Our CQP team
activates one or more CA counties with serious multi-setup portable
operations, and we've activated 5-6 rare NV or UT counties for 7QP with
stations that are easily workable on the two or three bands with prop to
all of NA. Our goal is to make working CQP and 7QP fun for out of state
participants throughout NA. and even EU. There are EU stations who take
these contests seriously, all because we don't sit on 40M and work
locals for in-state mults.
Scoring rules MATTER -- they establish the nature of the contest, who
can have fun because they are competitive, who can't. QSO parties are
more fun for both in-state/region participants if they have more
stations to work, and stations that need the higher bands to work them
will water their lawns when they can't.
73, Jim K9YC
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|